Creating a sand dam movement

Excellent Development

Excellent's Chairman, David Jordan OBE, shares our new strategy to 2025, and how your support can play a pivotal role...

Whenever I go on a trip, be it a visit to friends and family, a holiday or a trip to see the great work of Excellent Development delivering water and soil conservation to some of the poorest communities in the world, I have to plan my journey.However I get there, be it by bus, train, car or plane, my final destination is clear in my mind. Organisations also need to know where they are heading and Excellent Development is no exception. That’s why I am delighted to share our strategy for the future with you (click here).

At the very heart of our strategy is a big ambitious goal.By 2040 we want half a billion people living in the driest parts of the world to have access to a clean and secure supply of water. We are thinking big because water poverty is a growing issue which desperately needs to be tackled.

Focusing on what we want to achieve is clearly important. So too is working out just how we are going to deliver.

First, we will continue to help finance local groups to build sand dams where they are needed most. So we aim to invest in 100 sand dams each year, increasing to 200 a year by 2025, in some of the world’s driest places where people really need them.

"By 2040 we want half a billion people living in the driest parts of the world to have access to a clean and secure supply of water. We are thinking big because water poverty is a growing issue which desperately needs to be tackled."

We know we can help more families living in dry places by working with other organisations. This collaborative approach is the best way of multiplying investment in sand dams to tackle water poverty. So we will create a sand dam movement by promoting the benefits of sand dams for water and soil conservation using the impressive results of our early pioneering work in parts of Africa. This will prompt others to start to invest in sand dams.

Our focus now is delivery. Sand dams are great value and just need a little investment to get going. That’s whyThe Big Give Christmas Challenge, which runs from 28 November and into 5 December, is so important. Every penny and pound donated during that period will be doubled by others who support our work. It really is a two for one offer! For example, a donation of £60 will be doubled to £120, and will be used to buy equipment to help one of 3 local groups in southeast Kenya to build a sand dam; designed to improve the lives of the men, women and children living there.

On the run-up to Christmas, please give what you can and help us deliver our goal of giving a safe and secure water supply to those who have so little and play your part in creating a sand dam movement.

Supporting people in drylands to build sand dams, which provide a local supply of water, means that less children die each year from curable diarrhoea and women no longer have to bare this burden. Can you help by making a donation that will stop the suffering of communities living in drylands?

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Read about our plan to directly support other organisations to build sand dams, in turn, realising our vision to support millions of the world’s poorest people by helping them to transform their own lives through water and soil conservation in drylands.